As Time Goes On
by sktrgrl13
Summary: Ten years have passed since Natsu Dragneel graduated high school and went to university; now he has returned to Magnolia. He knows things have changed because everyone is older, but he wasn't expecting this...yaoi! NatRay


**Disclaimer: Mashima-sensei owns Fairy Tail :)**

**Warnings: Language, Yaoi, some Violence (but not a lot)**

Natsu couldn't stop the soft smile from spreading across his lips as he walked down the streets of his hometown. The burning hot sun was beating down on his shoulders as people, both young and old, flocked the streets of Magnolia. Just watching everyone move about the town was enough to send the memories rushing back full force; all the things he did growing up and the trouble that he and his friends used to get into. His smile tilted into a smirk as he stopped in front of his old high school; Fairy Tail High. The best days of his life happened in that pristine, white building and sometimes he would give anything to go back; to go back ten years would be amazing. At the age of 28 he was now out of university and had just finished his first residency in a hospital in the next city over; sure Edolas was great, but it would never compare to Magnolia.

Everything was so different now; no one was the same silly teenager they were in high school. He tried to keep track of all his friends as best as he could, but they all inevitably drifted apart. Natsu sighed sadly and shoved his hands in his pockets before turning his back on the building and continuing down the road. He wondered how much Magnolia changed since he had been gone. He glanced at the different stores as he made his way down the crowded street and found his eyes being drawn to a beige building with a dark roof. He felt his eyes widen when he recognized the name that was emblazoned on the front. He all but ran through the front door with a bell announcing his presence.

As the door shut behind him, a man with greying dark blue hair glanced up at him from the front counter. To Natsu, the man standing before him had changed greatly since he left Magnolia all those years ago; Macao Conbolt was…old. Wrinkles had started to appear on Macao's face and the crow's feet at the corner of the older man's onyx eyes seemed to have grown deeper over the years. Macao stared at Natsu with wide disbelieving eyes before a broad, familiar smile spread across his face. The older man dashed from behind the counter and pulled the pinkette into a tight hug before ruffling Natsu's legendary pink hair.

"Natsu," He laughed jovially, "Long time no see; how're you doing?!"

The pinkette rubbed the back of his neck and laughed with him,

"I'm good, just finished residency and decided to pop in for a visit."

The blue haired man nodded in understanding as he headed towards the counter. Natsu followed him and leaned against the counter as the man started to mark some papers with pen. The pinkette let his amber-flecked green eyes wander the shop; he couldn't be happier for the man, he had always said he wanted to open an antique shop. Natsu walked over to the vases closest to him and marveled at the dragon and snowflake depictions on one of them.

For a moment his mind wandered to a snowy day in the middle of December; school had just been let out for Christmas break. Grade four was about halfway done now and Natsu couldn't have been happier; he was getting sick of teachers telling him to stop fooling around and start acting his age. Natsu huffed causing a cloud of warm air to escape his mouth; the pinkette glanced around the snow covered streets in an attempt to find either Lucy or Erza so they could walk home together. He was about to give up on the endeavor when his green gaze landed on that of a familiar raven. His head was tilted towards the sky and his arms were spread out wide as if he were trying to embrace the snowflakes as they fell. The raven spun around in circles allowing the soft flakes to decorate his hair like a halo; the smile on the boy's face is what had him. Never in all the years that he had known him, has he ever seen the raven with a big of smile as that on his pale face; it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever had the chance to see…

He shook himself out of the memory with a soft chuckle as he placed the vase back on the shelf. His eyes drifted back to Macao and felt his cheek flush from the knowing smile spreading across the man's lips.

"So," Natsu smiled, "How's Romeo doing?"

Macao stopped what he was doing as a chuckle escaped his lips. Natsu raised an eyebrow at him as the older man dug through his pockets and pulled out an old battered wallet that was covered with duct tape. He flipped the wallet open and grabbed something from it before walking over to the pinkette and handing a photo over to him. Natsu barely stopped his mouth from dropping open when he saw a very grown up Romeo staring back at him. The boy he once knew had grown about six inches and he resembled his father when he was a teenager; he only knew this from the graduation photos he and his friends used to make fun of when they were bored.

What surprised Natsu the most was the fact that the young blue haired boy had his arm wrapped around the waist of a very familiar light blue haired girl. Her hair fell well passed the middle of her back and her brown eyes were shinning happily as she stared into the camera; if he hadn't seen this picture, he never thought that it was her. The pinkette smiled softly as he saw his surrogate sister so happy; he remembered the days when she was so timid and frightened, but he could tell just from a picture that she grew up a lot.

"He's dating Wendy." Macao rubbed the back of his head as he laughed, "Took my son months to ask her out. It got so bad that Mira brought it upon herself to match them up."

The pinkette felt a chill travel down his spine at the mention of the platinum blonde. Mira was the resident matchmaker of Magnolia; no matter how old the couple was she tried to set them up. The funny part was she never messed up; almost everyone she hooked up stayed together…well almost everyone. Natsu masked his nervous chuckle as a cough and returned the photo back to Macao. The older man seemed to look him over for a moment before the corner of his mouth curled upwards slightly.

"You should go visit the park by the riverbed," He shrugged, "It's changed a lot since you were last here you know."

Natsu felt a warm feeling spread throughout his chest at the mention of the old riverbed. Like the high school, this place held special memories for the pinkette. It held the memories of a tough as nails red head, a once perky blonde, a somewhat cynical blunette, a perverted strawberry blonde, a dark haired demon, a geeky blunette, an overprotective silverette, a love-sick blunette and an angsty-brooding raven; the weirdest group of friends to ever exist with an unbreakable bond. Although things had undoubtedly changed since back then, this riverbed is special to everyone. He thanked his old mentor before waving goodbye and leaving the shop. As the door shut behind him, he failed to see a satisfied smirk spread across Macao's face.

FTFTFTFT

Natsu stood by the river and watched as the afternoon sun shone down on the blue water causing it to sparkle like little diamonds. Children's laughter echoed in the background but it didn't really bother him; he was glad that kids still found this park fun. Before he left Magnolia, the town was thinking about tearing it down; but, Natsu and his friends put an end to that very quickly. Sure he just graduated high school and shouldn't have cared about some dingy old park, but he couldn't help himself. The playground was where he lost his first tooth, broke his first bone, threw his first punch and…had his first kiss; there was no way he was going to let it get torn down and neither were the others. He was effectively pulled out of his thoughts when something collided with the back of his knees.

The pinkette turned around and found a small boy staring up at him with wide blue eyes. Tears were welling in them and his bottom lip was quivering. Natsu knelt down on his knees so that they were the same height and immediately noticed the scraped knee and the mark on the boy's cheek; the poor thing couldn't have been more than three years old.

"Careful there little guy," Natsu smiled lightly, "Are you alright?"

The small boy stared up at him in confusion before dropping his eyes to the ground and mumbling under his breath. The pinkette couldn't quite understand what he was saying, but this action reminded him of someone he used to know; he just couldn't figure out who. He reached out to take the boy's hand when a loud, angry voice caused him to jump a mile into the air; he was pretty sure that he had almost given him a heart attack.

"If you don't step away from my son right now, I'm going to punch you so hard that your descendants are going to feel it."

Natsu glanced towards the source of the voice and felt his mouth drop open unattractively. Standing before him was a raven haired man with deep blue eyes and a permanent scowl etched on his smooth alabaster skin; what had got him the most was one feature…a feature that only one person was known to have. Natsu laughed good-heartedly and ruffled his pink hair in embarrassment before smirking.

"Hey there droopy eyes," He teased, "Fancy meeting you here!"

The paler man froze in his tracks, his deep blue eyes widening comically before a smirk adorned his face as well. The raven shoved his hands in his pockets as he approached the pinkette and the smaller raven; when he stood in front of them, he bent down and lifted the small boy into his arms. Natsu couldn't stop himself from gawking; no wonder the kid looked familiar. The small raven buried his face into the crook of Gray's neck as his father and the pinkette knocked their knuckles together in greeting.

"Flame head," He chuckled, "Didn't know you were back in town; you should've sent a letter or something dumbass."

Natsu shrugged his shoulders noncommittally,

"What's the point in doing that? I didn't even know you were still here let alone had a kid."

Gray stared at the pinkette blankly before rolling his eyes and turning on his heel. Watching the raven walk away caused a guilty and burning to feeling to rise up in Natsu's chest. The pinkette stepped forward and grabbed the back of Gray's shirt in a tight grasp to ensure that the raven wouldn't go anywhere. The blue eyed man turned his head and stared at the pinkette in annoyance before seeing the distressed look on his face. Gray's eyes softened as he faced Natsu and carefully untangled his son from his neck,

"Fla-Natsu,"

The pinkette's head snapped up at the sound of his name tumbling off the raven's lips. It had been a long, long time since Gray had called him by his first name and vice-versa. They had always just called each other by the silly nicknames they came up with in Grade School. The awkwardness that lingered between them for that brief moment quickly dissipated when Gray continued speaking.

"Can you watch Haru for me while I go find Dallin?"

Natsu nodded his head and accepted the young boy as Gray shifted him into his arms. Before Natsu could even utter a word, the raven had run off into the direction of the playground once more. The pinkette glanced down at the small raven in his arms and found deep blue eyes staring up at him with an intensity that only Gray himself had been able to manage. Haru certainly was the spitting image of Gray though; it was almost uncanny.

"N-Naswu?" Haru tilted his head to the side before smiling broadly, "Fwend?"

Okay, this kid was so adorable; Natsu practically felt himself melting on the inside just looking at him. The pinkette chuckled before nodding his head in confirmation causing the small raven's smile to broaden even further before pulling on Natsu's cheek in an attempt to see just how far he could stretch it. Natsu's eyebrows furrowed from the uncomfortable feeling and the pain slowly spreading throughout his body, but he bore it; he couldn't find it in himself to tell Haru to stop. After what felt like ages, Haru finally released Natsu's cheek and laughed at the sound that it made. Natsu resisted the urge to rub his cheek and just ruffled the small raven's hair,

"So, how old are you Haru?"

The raven blinked owlishly at him before holding up five fingers,

"Tree!"

Natsu smiled at the boy and was about to teach him how to show three on his fingers when he noticed Gray approaching him out of the corner of his eye. He was holding the hand of another pale boy, but his hair colour was that of royal blue and was a little wavy instead of spikey. The boy's eyes were the same as his father's; that rare deep blue no one in Magnolia was capable of attaining. However, as they got closer, he could see flecks of light blue in his eyes as well; the same light blue that he recognized from Juvia Lockster…

"Sorry for keeping you waiting," Gray huffed, "I had to chase this little monster around the playground five times before I finally caught him."

The blue haired boy, whose name was obvious Dallin, was glaring up at his father with his arms crossed over his chest. Natsu could definitely see Gray in him, even though he did look more like Juvia in some features; Dallin had inherited Gray's defiant personality. The raven pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled deeply. Natsu has known Gray long enough to know when he was going to lose his temper and this was definitely one of those times. Natsu put Haru on the ground so that the smaller raven could be with his older brother. The pinkette knelt down in front of Dallin and smiled softly,

"Hi Dallin, my name's Natsu; I went to school with your dad."

The blunette glared up at the twenty-eight year old man with hate in his eyes,

"You're the reason mommy left us."

TBC

**Hey guys! Just so you know, I am alive and well, I've just recently lost my muse and hate everything that I write. I decided to write this for something to motivate myself again and I hope you guys like it! And I've also found a new anime that I'm in LOVE with called Free! Iwatobi Swim Club… damn it's a good show! MakoHaru for the win! Anyways, this story isn't going to be a big project (I have even bigger ones planned), but I just couldn't shake this one. Waiting for your reviews! :)**

**-sktrgrl**

**PS. OMFG LAST TWO CHAPTER OF THE MANGA HAVE BEEN INTENSE! I'M TOTALLY CONVINCED THAT SILVER IS GRAY'S FATHER! WE'RE GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER TO THE ANSWER AND I'M SO EXCITED! HOPEFULLY EVERYONE WILL BE SAVED SOON! XD **


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